I've always been a big 80's buff and perhaps "after my time" a little, but in pinball I also fell in love with EMs in addition to solid state machines from that era of manufacturing that I also have general nostalgia for.

Before I confuse anybody, my use of "EM" in this post will generally mean anything after the woodrail era rather than covering all of those games as well which I'm fairly certain were way phased out by then and that I don't really collect anyhow. Very aware they are still considered EMs, however, of course.

I heavily own both EM pinball machines and solid state pinball machines. While I certainly don't mind putting opposite machines next to each other like my basement is some reincarnation of a badly organized Pinfest row (and wouldn't even be peeved much by mixing them all together rather than keeping them in separate groups if I had to), as I begin to customize my game room itself a little (of course 80's based, so the EMs will be a little out of their element), I can't help but wonder what the EM presence was like back then for those who were alive and flipping. All of my EM games are non-restored and a little rough around the edges (I prefer that) and would fit perfectly in that time period that I seem to know nothing about. I've seen really awesome 80's game room setups for those with primarily solid state games and 60's game room setups for those with primarily EM pinball machines, but as somebody who dabbles very heavily in both collector communities and collections (rather than just being the guy with 15 brand new DMD machines and 1 popular EM or vice versa) my 80's pinball love has been overrun with a lot of great playing machines from way before the era that I love so much and obviously they're not going anywhere to match any room. Both eras have a ton of history and great reincarnations in this hobby but usually both are focused on the prime of those years which of course do not include the other type of machine usually.

Considering I was alive for the prime of neither era and only caught pinball being phased out in outdated campgrounds in the early 2000's: Were EM machines still seen, particularly in locations with solid state machines? Did places that still operated EMs in the 80's have the funds to buy the then-brand-new solid state machines? About how long was it until EMs were pretty phased out of nearly everywhere? Were some of these locations that still operated EMs very popular or were they all pushed out of the popular places pretty quickly as they weren't "state of the art" and kept in other areas as I would imagine? Using Gottlieb as an example, I don't know if I could ever imagine my 1966 Mayfair in a 80's location but after that artist shift in the mid-sixties (around the time they switched to decagon score reels) most of the art seemed like it could fit in fairly well back then in the terms of not being an "old junk" eyesore to the new generation and even fits in much better today, much more modern looking rather than looking like a total relic.

I'm just really curious of the history, I already feel okay mixing my machines and it gives off an interesting vibe but usually the people collecting today have their favorite era of machine of their prime and either collect only those or collect mostly one kind and have 1 or 2 machines of the other kind for novelty purposes or because the machines are good players. Usually a collection represents one era or another with no focus on that mixed period of time and I'm not out to get some approval telling me "it's okay" but rather I'm very curious of how it went because usually it's unrepresented in today's game rooms. I know EMs didn't just magically disappear in 1978 and reappear in 2010. A lot of the machines still being operated today (not for museum or trendy purposes) from the 90's are even older right now than an EM pinball machine would have back then, but it seems like the focus in 80's history for them (EMs) is very low. Obviously the solid state machines took most control back then but based on history (probably biased or with a very strong focus) I've read they almost seemed non-existent during that period, which I know isn't true.

TL;DR: I've always kind of imagined my games separately earning money back in their primes but it would be kind of cool to view the room as a whole as a capsule of a different time like others do, even given the highly mixed nature of my collection. (Oldest 1966, newest 1985, most mid-70's EMs which would have been only single digits years old still and not too outdated looking to the 80's crowd)

(Oh, and YouTube just so happened to take me to listening to some VERY 80's Madonna and there's a 1975 "300" EM pinball machine in the background I happened to see, that's very ironic...

at 2:53/2:54)

My collection for reference and curiosity:

1966 Gottlieb Mayfair EM
1968 Gottlieb Domino EM
1969 Gottlieb Airport EM
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1972 Gottlieb Wild Life EM (I can make a clearer mental image/idea of these possibly being in the 80's from here on down the list, 5 digits and 3" flippers where as the previous three have small flippers and 4 digits, but still curious and pretty clueless of all)
1974 Gottlieb Magnotron EM
1974 Williams Strato-Flite EM
1974 Chicago Coin Showtime EM

1978 Williams World Cup SS (Obviously 80's)
1979 Williams Flash SS (Obviously 80's)
1982 Gottlieb Devil's Dare SS (Obviously 80's)
1985 Williams Comet SS (Obviously 80's)

(The lack of SS games is offset by owning an additional 12 80's arcade games I'd say, all solid-state technology)